Because You Love Me
by writerAngel7
Summary: A take on what could have happened if Alice had never seen Bella jump off the cliff in New Moon - Blaek Reigh style. 'why do i do this to myself' 'Because you love me...'


A/N: an idea that came to mind while I surfed the pages here on fanfiction

**A/N: an idea that came to mind while I surfed the pages here on fanfiction. Hope you enjoy!!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, any of its characters and plots, or the almighty amazingness of it; that's all Stephanie Meyer's**

**XXX**

_September 13, 2065_

-

_**ISABELLA MARIE SWAN-BLACK**_

_**SEPTEMBER 13, 1987- January 18, 2065**_

_**Beloved Daughter, Mother, Grandmother, and Friend**_

Edward Cullen could've read those words over a thousand times and still be damning himself to hell and back for every letter… especially the last name.

It had been just over sixty years since he'd seen her… talked to her… touched her… smelled her…

…kissed her…

Some form of masochistic relief was built in Edward as he kept reading those words. She had moved on… true, it had been to that _dog_… but it was better than nothing, he guessed.

'Daughter…'

Charlie's grave was only over a few plots.

'Mother…'

He cringed at the thought of Bella ever loving someone else more than him enough to share that form of intimacy… but apparently, she had.

Edward closed his eyes and tried to imagine his Bella cuddling and cooing infants, holding the hands of toddlers, sending small children off to first days of school, reprimanding teenagers in their rebellious years, crying as she sent off young adults to colleges…

The images came too easily, Jacob Black in the background of all of them… and somehow, they made him think of Carlisle and Esme.

'Grandmother…'

Her children had children… and he wondered if any of them looked like her, acted like her, smelled like her… maybe even were accident prone like her…

'Friend…'

In the process of moving on to new love, Edward assumed that she had moved back to her friends, like Jessica, Angel, Mike, Ben, Tyler, Eric, and so on.

Bella was a very bright, warm, and inviting person; someone to easily be friends with…

'January 18…'

Sixty years previous, it had been Bella's first day at Forks High School… the first day her blood had sang to him…

…the first day he'd realized he was in love with her.

Was it too ironic that the dates coincided? Too much like something that would happen in a cheesy romance novel?

To him, it was more of a mocking laugh, cackling at him in annoyingly shrilly pleasure.

Edwards brow creased and his jaw set in anger as he stared burningly at the date.

He could grab the top of the beautiful granite stone and tear it from the ground in one swift movement, crack it over his knee in another, and bury the remains in the back yard of the ancient white house only a minute's run away in one more.

But of course, he didn't.

He had simply come back to Forks to see her…

He wouldn't try to talk to her or even come into her line of vision; he just needed to see her, know that she was alive, and doing fine in whatever new life she'd formulated for herself after he had left.

Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

He had snuck through the back window of Charlie's house as he always had to see that Bella's room was completely changed, obviously not hers anymore, and the house obviously not Charlie's.

He knew it was breaking enemy lines, but Edward was just this desperate:

He tried La Push.

The tiny wooden house he recognized as belonging to Billy Black was still standing where it always had, and under the reek of werewolf, he could detect his Bella's sweetly floral scent.

He had nearly been satisfied with catching her aroma, but he had to see her, as well.

Before making to test around and actually see her, he noticed something different about the scent… it wasn't very prominent… as if it was simply lingering in the air, or embalmed into blankets or furniture…

…it wasn't strong enough to actually belong to her.

After making such a realization, the first thought that struck him was the one that stood before him, and he threw it off immediately.

He didn't want to think about her, cold, white, and lifeless, somewhere in the ground…

…although he knew that was the most likely possibility.

It went against everything he had to actually check the cemetery, and when he did, he found Charlie and gave a moment of silence in respect for the man before strolling down a plot or two when it lashed out at him from the corner of his eye; the very stone he stood before now.

'This is agony…' he thought, 'No… no, this is _worse_ than agony… it's the single most excruciatingly masochistic morose thin I have ever done in my entire existence…'

Yet somehow, he couldn't take his golden eyes off the stone.

In one way, he was glad he hadn't seen in all those years… it was better to remember her as he knew her than what she had become after he left.

He could close his eyes, think her name, and images and memories would come to mind of her lovely blush, the little crease she'd get between her eyebrows when she was angry or confused, the sparkling shade of brown in her eyes, the glint of red in her hair in the sunlight, the irregular rhythm of her heart when he kissed her, the sweet sound of her laugh…

It was becoming too much and Edward shook himself out of the daze, only to realize that he was on his knees in front of the stone, his arms on the top ledge and his head pressed against the marble.

'Why do I do this to myself?' he wondered in sheer agony.

The softest, sweetest voice that had ever reached his ears responded in the back of his mind, 'Because you love me…'

**XXX**

**A/N: I'm really surprised I did this… I've only written one other thing 'Twilight' before and I swore to myself that would be it… guess not.**

**Review if you will**

**-Reigh**


End file.
